Television magnifies big events and understates the smaller ones. In Carlow on Saturday evening, there was support for the generalisation. In chilly, drizzly weather, Dublin champions Kilmacud Crokes imposed their logic on Éire Óg for a win that never looked in jeopardy.
What appeared an odd choice of programming by RTÉ, at least reached out to one of the biggest club memberships in the country and showcased the All-Ireland holders in the first defence of their Leinster title.
Maybe it was also a hat tip to the traditions of Éire Óg as not simply the standard bearers of a smaller county, but in the 1990s enough of a power in the province to be clear in fourth place on the roll of honour with one of those titles coming at Kilmacud’s expense.
There have been acts of defiance like Mullinalaghta’s defeat of Kilmacud in the 2018 Leinster final and Éire Óg’s running Ballyboden uncomfortably close the following year but reality points to Dublin clubs having won eight of the last 10 titles and 11 of the last 15.
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This compares with a strike rate of 13 in the remaining 36 years of the championship.
Neither is it just a Dublin phenomenon. The evidence this century is that serial success at club level has overall become more prevalent – just as it has at intercounty.
Some of the same influences are apparent: improvement in strength and conditioning preparation, advances in sports science, better coaching – all impacting by making success more sustainable for good, well-resourced teams.
For a long time, only UCD and St Finbarr’s had managed to retain football All-Ireland’s and for 40 years the only clubs who did it in hurling were Galway teams, who had a largely uncontested provincial championship.
In the two decades since the turn of the century, however, there have been four back-to-backs in both hurling and football and Galway’s Corofin became the first club to achieve three successive titles.
Kilkenny’s Ballyhale Shamrocks might have emulated Corofin on three-in-a-row in hurling but for Covid wiping out 2021 after they had won 2019 and ‘20 and Ballygunner’s Harry Ruddle wiping out 2022 in the last seconds of the final.
Provincial championships are also becoming more restrictive in their range of winners. Take the rolls of honour in the four provinces – they are generally topped by clubs that have generated the bulk of their successes in the two decades of this century.
Speaking about a similar situation in the intercounty game last August, former Laois football manager and Kilkenny hurling coach, Michael Dempsey emphasised the importance of a tradition of success.
“The overall environment in terms of the quality of coaching plus the influence of tradition and culture. Ultimately, when players come into a senior management, their skills are already developed so other aspects of preparation are being looked at: S+C, the psychological and the importance of nutrition.
“We can’t underestimate the importance of the pathway in counties with repeated success.”
Are evolving structures also playing a role? Not really in that significant change to the club championship calendar has only taken place in the past couple of years. Prior to that, the All-Ireland finals on St Patrick’s Day ensured that club teams almost had to go around the calendar to repeat success and yet some had already begun to master the process.
One of the most obvious challenges was how to negotiate over Christmas and the New Year the two-month gap between winning a provincial championship and competing in the All-Ireland series. The gruelling schedule was for years a major factor in club teams not being able to replicate success.
Clubs who became used to doing it generally had an advantage over those new to the demands.
Ballygunner are perennial winners in Waterford. In September, they won a record 10th straight Waterford title and yet had to wait until last Sunday for their first match in Munster, an eight-week gap. Manager Darragh O’Sullivan said, afterwards, that they had it all worked out between breaks, training and internal matches – simply from being used to the routine.
The club has a peculiar tendency to be drawn in provincial quarter-finals – eight of their 10-in-a-row teams have had to face the early draw – but their last four matches at that stage have been won by an average of 15 points and they are within two matches of recording the first three-in-a-row of Munster club hurling championships.
The top three on the province’s football roll of honour – Nemo Rangers, Dr Crokes and St Finbarr’s – have won 15 of this century’s 22 titles.
Leinster hurling has a similar tale of modern dominance. The province managed only one retained championship – Rathnure 1986-87 – before this century. Since 2000, it’s been done on five occasions.
Unusually, given its history of competitiveness and claustrophobic rivalries, Ulster football had the greatest experience of serial success from an early stage but in terms of translating that onto the national stage, arguably the pioneers were Armagh’s Crossmaglen Rangers.
From 1996 to date, the club has won 23 out of 28 county titles and converted them into 11 Ulster and six All-Ireland championships. They were the first team in the modern age to win back-to-back football All-Irelands, 1999-2000 and did it again in 2011-12. This weekend they’re on the move again, playing Trillick in Omagh.
Novelty used to be one of the great attractions of the club championships. The more familiar the contenders become, the more routine it all appears – which for a competition founded on a sense that anyone might fancy their chances, is a pity.
